Vern Thiessen on bringing Vimy to the theatre stage

Vern Thiessen isn't one to shy away from big challenges. The award-winning Canadian playwright has a knack for taking unwieldy but dramatic source material, and crafting it into sharp and affecting human stories. Later this month, Vimy — his award-winning take on the epic World War I battle — opens at Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre.

And on Canada Day, his adaptation of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, which won seven Dora Mavor Moore awards in 2014, will open off-Broadway in New York, the place he's called home for the past several years.

It's all part of Soulpepper's bold initiative to take Canadian theatre on the road. The Soulpepper on 42nd Street Festival will showcase more than 10 Canadian plays and 65-plus artists during the month of July in New York.

Vern Thiessen drops by to talk about his role in the festival and what it means to be bring Vimy to the stage in Toronto, on the 100th anniversary of Canada's most celebrated military victory.

— Produced by Dawna Dingwall

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